BIRD RUG

floor covering handwoven in Turkey from the 16th to the 18th century, carrying on a white ground an allover, stylized leaf design commonly thought to resemble a bird. A scarce, comparatively large version in bright colours seems to have been made along the Aegean coast of Turkey, possibly in the city of Usak. Small rugs, progressively cruder and more degenerate in treatment with more sombre colouring, have been found in Transylvanian churches and were probably produced either there or in European Turkey. Bird rugs, as well as other white-ground Turkish rugs, have been forged extensively.